We’ve had an Accessible and Inclusive Learning Policy at Edinburgh since 2013.  It was radical at the time, particularly in allowing students to audio record their teaching, but was looking rather dated even before the online pivot in 2020.  In the context of an ongoing Curriculum Transformation project, how might we change it? I’ve been […]

We are happy to announce that the University has officially reached an incredible milestone of 4 million enrolments on our 80 free short online courses! A huge thank you to our keen learners who engage meaningfully with the courses and participate in lively discussions.    These online courses are completely free to take and have no entry requirements. Led by world-class academics and supported by teaching assistants, they […]

It is essential that we tackle the biggest challenge of our time – climate change – by giving each of us the knowledge and tools we need to make a real difference. Dr. Erika Warnatzsch and her fellow MSc Carbon Management alumni have put in tremendous amounts of effort to create course content for the […]

It is our responsibility to live in a sustainable manner to ensure a better world for society to live in, warranting that the planet’s resources can be enjoyed for generations to come. The University of Edinburgh provides several free short online courses, and a significant number of these are related to the environment and sustainability. They are completely free to […]

It was super to connect with staff from FutureLearn and other educational organisations and HEIs yesterday at the FutureLearn Partners’ Forum, which reflected on how we can turn the online learning momentum of the past 18 months into further action. For those of us already working in the online education space when the pandemic hit, […]

A few brief reflections on the sessions I attended at the University of Edinburgh’s virtual Learning and Teaching Conference, 15-17 June 2021. Curriculum Transformation Keynote speaker Kerri-Lee Krause gave us important advice on how best to manage and consult during a curriculum transformation project, and the thing that stuck with me was her example of […]

We currently have more than 4,000 students enrolled on more than 70 fully online postgraduate degrees covering a multitude of topics from ancient worlds to vascular surgery. Like any university offering part-time online degrees, our students are based around the globe, with about 40 per cent in the UK, 13 per cent in Europe, 13 per cent in North America, 11 per cent in East Asia and Australasia, 9 per cent in Africa and 14 per cent from the rest […]

The written word is a powerful communication tool. For short online courses, it is how we share learning materials, build community, and create instructor presence. Online courses use a mixture of reading and listening coupled with more interactive learning like discussion forums, multiple choice quizzes, and reflective exercises. This means the learner’s overall experience is […]

Discussion is a powerful tool for online learning. It can help foster a sense of community and encourage peer to peer interaction and improve learner engagement. Discussion can take the form of debate or reflective sharing, giving learners the opportunity to expand upon and clarify their understanding of key ideas. It moves beyond more passive […]

We’ve been creating free short online courses since 2012, and have created more than 80 courses hosted on three partner platforms, Coursera, edX and FutureLearn. We’re fairly sure that we’re the only UK university to partner with all three of these major online course platforms! These partners and their websites are huge marketing machines, taking […]